Replies

1. 
   GregoryPaolini | Nov 08, 2010 07:27am | #1

   Kitchen Island

   You can mix and match different species of wood - It will make for a nice artistic effect.  But expansion and contraction still have to be dealt with.  General rule of thumb is to allow for 1/4" of expansion/contraction per foot of width of the material - For all intents and purposes, wood only expands accross it's width and thickness, not it's length.  So as long and you have some way for the wood to move engineered into the top, you'll be in good shape.

   The only thing I would recomend as far as wood speceies, is to think about how the top will be used.  If you'll be doing a lot of cutting and food prep on it, you may want to stick with a fine grained wood, so that food bits dont get stuck in pores.  Also, You may want to tconsider a waterproof glue too, since it will be a kitchen island, and likley to be exposed to moisture.

   Best,

   Gregory

2. 
   ring | Nov 08, 2010 09:14am | #2

   you can mix

   Basically I agree with what Gregory said, but as the top gets thicker you will have certain discrepancies in the height of the different species laid up next to each other.   For instance, if you used 3" thick beech next to 3" walnut you'd definitely get a small "step" at the joint over time.  This is because the expansion/contraction differences across the worktop will go unoticed but even a small difference in the thicknesses will be felt.  So, bottom line, if the top is relatively thin, or if you use woods that have similar expansion coefficients, then you'll never have an issue.

1. 
   James R. | Nov 08, 2010 03:11pm | #3

   Kitchen island

   Thanks to both of you for responding so quickly.

   The part I'm concerned about is as David said, some species expand and contract at different rates.  My follow up question is, which woods are reasonably compatible with say hard maple?  

   Thanks again for the help.

   Jim

1. 
   Eef | Nov 08, 2010 04:13pm | #4

   hi jim,

   just one more thought...

   matching the relative density of the various species is a good idea.  the parts will wear equally that way.

   eef

2. 
   DonStephan | Nov 08, 2010 08:51pm | #5

   How are you planning to incorporate the different woods?  Edge glue?  Panel in frame?

1. 
   James R. | Nov 09, 2010 02:06am | #6

   Kitchen island

   I plan on edge gluing like a work bench. My problem is knowing the compatible woods, density wise. I'm basically planning to use a lot of scrap at 1 1/4" or 1" square at different lengths. I have a lot of hard and soft maple, cherry, and walnut. Will any of these be compatible? If not I'll just use hard maple.

   Jim

1. 
   ring | Nov 09, 2010 01:19pm | #7

   check it yourself

   First of all you can use the shrinkage calculator to plug in actual data and get quantitative answers to what you're asking:

   http://www.woodweb.com/cgi-bin/calculators/calc.pl?calculator=shrinkage

   In my experience, the maple will live pretty well with both walnut and cherry.  Assuming a 2" thick worktop you probably wont get more than a few thousandths in thickness changes.  Compare that with beech or overcup oak and you'll have 3 times that much.

3. 
   James R. | Nov 10, 2010 11:59am | #8

   Kitchen island

   David:

   Thanks for the link.  That really solves my problem, the pieces should be compatible together and not pose a problem.

   Knots is like a woodworking class and you can raise your hand with a question anytime and get answers from several professors.  I learn something almost every day on Knots.

   Thanks again to everyone,

   Jim